Permeable
by varietyofwords
Summary: Relationships aren't supposed to be permeable. Theirs was. Casey/Cappie. Freshman, and into sophomore, year.
1. Chapter 1

**Title:** Permeable

**Chapter:** One

**Fandom:** Greek

**Coupling:** Casey/Cappie

**Words: **4,925

**Rating:** PG-13/T

**Author's Note:** This is part one of the two, or three, part story. It's mostly written with a few details that need to be smoothed out here and there. This is basically how I think freshman and the beginning of sophomore year went with a bunch of dialog lifted from the show and my thoughts stringing it together.

Cappie spent a whole year living in a tent at Yellowstone National Park before the park rangers found out and called Child Protective Services. CPS told his parents they had to get him a suitable home and put him in school or else they'd risk losing him. And somehow through a friend of a friend of a friend they got the job at Camp Kitchiwahwah as the arts and crafts counselors. Under the promise of a lot of kids to play with, he didn't complain when the loaded the tent in the Volkswagen van and headed for Ohio.

It wasn't until June that Evan Chambers arrived with his ironed clothes and dry cleaned sheets and Cappie had already spent a whole month in one of the cabins alone, disenfranchised with the whole idea of living there. Mom and Dad, or Lily and Benjie as they insisted he call them, told him that since camp started, he'd be living with the other boys just like a real camper. Cappie wasn't thrilled with the idea, told his parents there was no way in hell he'd share a bunk with a bunch of sissy boys but they told him he had to, which totally went against their free spirit parenting style, and moved him into one of the cabins.

Evan introduced himself first, stuck his hand out and everything. Cappie just stood there, hands jammed in the pockets of his ratty blue jeans and stared Evan, and his parents, down.

"You can have the top bunk."

Cappie guesses that's what broke the ice between them and pretty soon he and Evan were doing everything together. Signing up to be on the same canoeing team, breaking into the mess hall for some late night snack.

Although, looking back now, the counselors probably wouldn't have given a damn if they had even found out. Evan was the Golden Boy because his parents had money and they were major benefactors of the camp.

And when camp ended, they didn't exchange letters or any sissy thing like that figuring that when summer rolled around next year, they'd pick up right where they ended.

There really wasn't a discussion that he and Evan would room together once college started because Cappie hadn't really planned to go to college per say. Lily and Benjie never placed a real high importance on education but Cappie's really smart, according to his high school guidance counselor, and he "shouldn't waste his intelligence working some dead end job," so he half-assed his applications and when acceptance letters began arriving, picked Cyprus-Rhodes University because it was where Evan said he was going to go three summers ago since it was his dad's alma mater and all.

He haphazardly scrawled Evan's name on the roommate request form, left a message with the Hispanic woman who answered the Chambers' home phone, and packed his bags for Cyprus, Ohio.

He never planned to rush or anything but he's always had this fascination with _Old School_ and once Evan says dorm parties are just "sausage fests" and the Greeks are guaranteed to have parties, boozes, and girls, he's totally there. Plus, he figured it would be something he'd have in common with Evan besides the eight by eight cell they shared.

He spent thirty minutes at Omega Chi listening to Evan discuss vacations in the Hamptons, his father's company, and the alumni job assistance program, all the while waiting for someone to jump out and say "JK! Party's out back!" because, hell, even the Lambda Sigs, who asked him how fast he can run, had some decent music playing, rather than this touchy, feely crap. It's when the conversation turned to J. Crew that Cappie decided the whole Greek thing isn't for him and after making a pit stop to swipe a pledge paddle of the Omega Chi's wall, he followed Evan and the rest of their group out of the house.

"Do you use gel or wax? Did we really have that conversation?" Cappie asks as they exit the house and Evan groans in response. "And what was with the jock house?"

"Oh, I know," Evan starts with another groan as they make their way to the next house on their tour.

"The…What is it? The…" he searches for the answer as he puts his hand on Cappie's shoulder. "The Lambda Sigs."

"Lamba Sigs," Cappie echoes. "Yeah, they asked me how fast I could run the forty."

"What?"

"Yeah."

"Are you serious?" Evan asks with a touch if disbelief in his voice.

"They loved you," Cappie replied, drawing out the 'o' in 'loved.'

"I didn't even have to drop the Chambers bomb once, man."

"Yeah, you didn't have to at Omega Chi, either," Cappie replies as he points back over his shoulder with his thumb at the house they just came from.

"Yeah," Evan says as he runs his right hand through his hair as he process the realization that everyone on campus already knows who he is.

"Yeah, they were so busy sucking up to you I got to swipe this," Cappie says as he pulls the stolen pledge paddle from his coat pocket.

"Okay," Evan replies as he pulls the pledge paddle back down out of sight. "Now we're breaking the law. What are you doing?"

Cappie just laughs.

"Come on," Cappie says with a nudge. "Can we just go now?"

"No. Come on, Cap. Listen," Evan replies. "I swear. You just haven't found your right fit yet."

"I have found the right fit," Cappie fires back as he ticks it off on his fingers before making quotation marks. "It's called the dorm room."

"No," Evan says on a sigh.

"Three squares a day," Cappie highlights as he once again ticks things off on hier fingers. "Cable T.V. What…What more do you need?"

"Cappie," Evan starts as he throws his arm around his friend's shoulders and pats his left chest. "Trust me. Alright? Think of a fraternity as…four more years of camp, alright? But this time, your cabin is equipped with girls and beer."

"Okay," Cappie says as he reverts back to ticking things off on his fingers while Evan pulls the pledge paddle out of the waistband of his pants and throws it in front of them. "Well, the last two came with abusers…"

He pauses as he picks up the chunked souvenir.

"And men with frosted tips. Come on, Evs, you've gotten three invitations already," Cappie says as he lightly smacks his friend's shoulder. "What are you holding out for?"

"This one," Evan replies, pointing toward a white column house with Christmas lights still hung up. "Okay? This is house that I'm real interested in."

Cappie sighs and points towards the wooden letters hanging on the exterior of the house.

"What do those letters mean again?"

"Kappa Tau Gamma."

"Kappa Tau Gamma," Cappie echoes before sighing with a shrug. "Alright. One more."

"Let's do it," Evan replies before Cappie leads the way to the front door.

From the outside, the house looks completely run down but as soon as they get in the house and the Kappa Taus double check for any "spies and traitors," they are all lead to the backyard where the music is blaring and scantily clad women are dancing.

It's the ice sculpture that makes him realizes that _this_ is the house for him and after finishing off the bottle of alcohol, Cappie's kind of became a one hit wonder amongst the crowd. He was talking to some guy with a mullet named Charles and another guy who just came up to him when he first caught a glimpse of her swaying side to side, moving with the beat of the music but still seeming a thousand miles away in her own little world. He couldn't take his eyes off her—refused to take them off of her as he pated the guy he'd later find out is Egyptian Joe on the shoulder and made his way over to her.

"Cappie," he said gesturing to himself with his free hand.

"That's your name?" The blonde asked with a touch of disbelief in her voice.

"Please, regale me with yours."

"I'm…I'm Casey Cartwright."

"Wow. Sexy alteration. Casey. Cartwright. Simple yet elegant…Wanna do a body shot?" Cappie asked and Casey laughed nervously.

"Someone's already getting me a drink."

"In a cup? How boring!"

"Well, at least I get to keep my clothes on."

"Rarely a virtue in my experience," Cappie told her as he tried to catch her line of sight, ducking down a bit in the process. "And, just for the record, I was hoping you'd do the shot off me."

"I'll stick to the cute guy with the boring cup."

"That's what they said at Jonestown. Do you really trust your drink with a, uh, complete stranger?"

"Well, let's ask him."

"Hey, hey," Evan said as he walked over to them. "Whoa, you know Cappie?"

"Evan's the guy? Then I stand corrected. He's the safest guy I know."

"Uh, thanks," Evan replied. "I think."

"You guys know each other?" Casey asked.

"Yeah. We're roommates, actually. Can you believe someone just left him on my doorstep?" Cappie asked her and Casey laughed. "I opened the door and there he was looking for somebody to take care of him."

"I don't need anyone to take care of me," Evan replied dryly and Cappie remembers thinking 'What's his problem?'.

"Oh, my god. I love this song," some girl exclaimed as she grabbed Casey's hand and lead her out to the mass of dancing people. Cappie shrugged his shoulders in an almost what the hell kind of way as Casey grabbed his free hand.

"Come on," Casey yelled.

"Hey, uh, what about your drink?" Evan called after them.

"Just put it down and come dance," Casey told him.

The music was upbeat but Cappie and Evan awkwardly danced side by side, each vying for her attention. Until, that is, Casey turned toward him and brushed her body up against his making her decision. Her right hand settled on his neck for a brief moment before it slid down his back, their eyes locked on one another, and her face inches from his.

Kappa Tau Gamma became a big part of his life after that night, which is ironic considering he never planned to rush or anything. And looking back on it, Cappie's really glad he did because, if nothing else, it's the reason he met Casey.

In a way, Cappie has a lot of regrets about his relationship with Casey freshman year besides the obvious he's no longer dating her one. There was a lot of hurt, a lot of ignorance, a lot of obliviousness.

He was oblivious to her pain every time he ran off with his Kappa Tau brothers but, mostly, he was oblivious to Evan's feelings for Casey.

Technically, he was supposed to follow the "bro code." Technically, since Evan got her a drink first, since Evan met her first, Casey was his. But Cappie was never one for technicalities and Casey made her choice. She danced with him, she grabbed his hand. Not Evan's.

And he thought it was okay. Evan didn't confront him; Evan didn't say a damn thing. Besides, as Casey dubbed them one night at Dobler's, they were the Three Musketeers and he thought there was more than just one string that held them together.

Casey, while Cappie's girlfriend, was also Evan's friend. And he and Evan were pledge brothers, they shared that common bond of digging up the Omega Chi's flower beds and using the plants to spell out 'We're gay' on the front yard.

That is until the conversation of nicknames comes up one night at a house meeting.

"Why am I 'Bing?' What's 'Bing?'"

"Well, when the brothers were deciding who to honor with a bid, there was some discussion. You," Egyptian Joe says as he points to Evan, "fell somewhere between bid and a ding."

"So I almost got 'dung' out?" Evan asks after a brief moment of awkward silence.

"Bingo!" Egyptian Joe replies. "No offense."

"Hey man," Cappie says. "Don't sweat it. You're in."

"Of course you're in," Egyptian Joe seconds. "Bing. I mean, you guys are like a package deal. If he's in, you're in. If you're in, he's in. If he's not in, you're not in. If you're not in, he's still in."

When they got back to their dorm that night, Evan shaved off his beard. Cappie pretended not to notice what caused the sudden change, told him that he was glad he got rid of that "fuzzy rat patch" on his face. Evan didn't say anything, didn't even say anything to Casey when she asked about it the next night at Dobler's before the two of them ran off on their date to his "secret place."

It was ten days later that Evan came into to their dorm room, interrupting his make out session with Casey, and told him what Cappie had tried to deny was coming. He sat there, trying to figure out what to say, stroking the inside of Casey's thigh as they both listened to his words.

"Wait," Cappie interrupted. "So you're leaving Kappa Tau to pledge Omega Chi?"

"Yeah," Evan replied. "Well, I mean, it's done, Cap. But it's okay, man. It was the right move for me."

"I only rushed because you did."

"I know that. And look how well that turned out for you, man. You're a superstar. Come on. I'm just…"

"Bing?"

"Yeah. Bing."

"Wait, you can't be a part of something unless you're the superstar?" Cappie asked, sitting up on his bed.

"Let's be honest. It's not like you're not enjoying being the Golden Boy."

"So you're in different houses now?" Casey asked, interrupting their stare down. "Big deal. Nothing has to change."

"No. No. No," Cappie replied. "I just want to understand why Evan's making a very, very, very poor decision here."

"Omega Chi has a lot to offer me," Evan replied and Cappie can remember how much he wanted to demand a do over.

"What?" Cappie asked with a snort. "Like starched collars and sailing lessons?"

"And better athletics, an alumni job assistance program, an emphasis on academics."

"Okay, who cares? We're in college. We should enjoy the six or seven years and don't worry about making contacts."

"Yeah, but then what, man? We're not going to be in college forever."

"So much for having fun, huh, Mr. Chambers?"

"Alright, you know what…" Evan replied.

"What?" Cappie challenged.

"Hey, hey," Casey interrupted, ever the mediator. "I know. I know. Why don't we go get some hamburgers?"

"Hamburgers. Yum…" Casey said as Evan picked up some course guide and Cappie crossed his arms. "Come on, guys. Don't fight over something like this. It's just the Greek system. Don't let it ruin our friendship. We're the Three Musketeers."

"Hey, it's okay," Evan assured her. "It's…It's totally fine. I'm not even…I'm not even hungry. I've got to study."

"Alright," Cappie replied putting his arm around Casey. "Let's go."

"I'm sorry," Casey whispered back and Cappie can remember thinking he was too.

But Casey was wrong. It's never been _just_ the Greek system. All of the sudden, he and Evan were on opposing teams. Kappa Tau hates Omega Chi. Omega Chi hates Kappa Tau.

And slowly but surely, Cappie and Evan start hanging out less and less. Occasionally, they were their dorm room together but one of them was always quick to leave, making up some bull shit about having some pledge thing to do, Evan's lie, or having to write a term paper, Cappie's lie. And really, Cappie's so caught up in Casey and Kappa Tau that he stopped caring.

Some time before Halloween, after Casey pushed him off her during one of their make out sessions, Cappie finally asked her why they haven't had sex yet. Because, in all honesty, there were girls throwing themselves at him during Kappa Tau parties when Casey wasn't looking or Casey wasn't there and Cappie, without fail, pushed them away, told him he had a girlfriend and all.

"Do you not find me attractive or something?" He asked as he pulled her back down on top of him.

"No, no," she insisted dropping her head down to kiss him again. "You're very attractive."

"Then why no sex? Why no McNasty?" He asked her, a way he wished he could take back now because it sounded so sleazy. She dropped her head so her she could bury it into his neck and mumbled something he couldn't quite make out.

"What?" He asked as she pushed up on her fingers so she hovered over him and concern immediately etched its way into his face when he noticed her eyes were glistening in the corners. He wanted so desperately to lighten the mood, make her smile again.

"You're not a dude, are you?" He asked and she laughed lightly, nervously as she shook her head no.

"I'm a virgin, Cap."

"Oh."

"Yeah," she trailed off.

Cappie didn't know quite what say. Congratulations for keeping your cheery unpopped for eighteen and a half years? He had lost his virginity at the age of fifteen to Claire Naylor, one of the girls visiting from the girl's camp across the lake, in the camp's storage shed down by the lake one summer while everyone else was at the bonfire roasting marshmallows and making s'mores. Afterwards, he asked if he could keep her bra to show his friends.

"Okay…" he drew out as he sat up in bed. She searched his face for his own answer and he figured he might as well make this into another round of that game they played while eating dinner after the movies three nights ago. "Truth or lie?"

"Truth," she replied and he figured as much because Casey's hated liars.

"Claire Naylor. Fifteen. Lakeside storage shed. And afterwards, I asked if I could keep her bra."

Casey scrunched her face up in disgust and he couldn't help the chuckle that escaped at her question.

"Did she let you?"

"Yeah. And she was a lot smaller than you."

"Pig," Casey replied.

"Hey, now. Evan's the one that kept it," Cappie told her because Evan did, in fact, swipe it from his stuff three days later and he never asked for it back. What he doesn't tell her is that Claire Naylor told her friends and when the next Camp Kitchiwahwah and Camp Fern bonfire rolled around, he was the most popular guy there.

"You two are disgusting."

Casey went back to her dorm room saying Frannie, her big sis he met at Dobler's a couple of weeks ago, picked her to help plan for the mixer between Zeta Beta and Omega Chi next weekend.

The mixer was planned for the same night as the Pi Pi Pi's, or TriSluts as Casey called them, wet t-shirt contest. An odd choice for October at any other university in the United States but Cappie attributed the decision to the weather force field around Cyprus. Not that he was complaining because it meant Casey could still wear short skirts and tank tops and Cappie realized he was in it deep when he blew off being pledge judge in the contest for some mixer with Casey.

It was the first mixer that Casey invited him to. Technically, the girls aren't allowed to bring dates who aren't a member of the co-mixing fraternity but Casey apparently talked to Frannie and Frannie managed to pull some strings or something. He didn't want to go, almost told Casey as much until she sent a picture of her dress to his cell phone. So he showed up wearing a tie over his plaid button up shirt and a pair of pants that only had one stain on them.

The Omega Chis weren't too keen on letting him in but Casey spotted them trying to shove him back out the door, grabbed his hand, and pulled him over to where she had been standing with Ashleigh and Frannie.

"Oh, look, it's the Kappa Tau fling," Frannie mumbled and he looked down to see if Casey noticed. She didn't seem visibly upset and he let the snide comment go, allowed her to drag him around the room introducing him to one preppy girl after another.

Jenna Acierno. Samantha Snow. Rachel Herrick. Marissa Garcia. Melissa Flandreau. Alyssa Johnson. Lindsey Phillips. Kristen Maloney. Brittney Baker. Lauren Gates. Carly Fryer. Jessica Fox. Leah Frasier. Sarah Fait. Audrey White. Michelle Coleman. Susanne Kelly. Lauren Layne. Jennifer Holbrook. Molly Sprigs. Courtney Winfield. Meredith Gosforth. Julie McKee. Annie Crawford. Betsy Liu. Elise Benson. Mallory Carter.

And the queen bee herself, Zeta Beta Zeta president Caroline Langley.

They all looked the same to him, their hair straightened and pulled back by a clip or pinned on top of their head. And they all greet him the same too and he would have bet his own life that Frannie wasn't the only one who considered him to be "the Kappa Tau fling."

After about twenty minutes of listening to more of that crappy touchy, feely music and having everyone treat him like dirt, he decided he had enough of all this bullshit. He was tempted just to put his glass down on a table _without_ a coaster underneath it but figured the action would probably start a brawl since they were all watching him out of the corner of their eyes and decided to return the glass to the bar instead.

"Evan?" He asked, unsure of the identity of the guy next to him.

"Cappie," Evan replied dryly and Cappie was a little taken aback by the harshness in his voice. He sat the drink down on the counter and turned to figure out where Casey was so he could tell her he was leaving. She stood in a small semicircle with Frannie and Caroline and a girl he thinks is Alyssa. Or maybe Melissa? But he, figuring it's important and not wanting to interrupt, turned back to Evan.

"Make sure none of these douche bags make a move on Casey, will ya?"

"You're leaving?" Evan asked and the tone of his voice made Cappie a bit angry.

"Yeah."

"And you're not telling Casey?"

Cappie didn't answer his question, figured that Casey would understand and he didn't have to explain himself to her.

The guys cheered when Cappie crossed the street and headed over to where they were hosing down the TriPis. Beaver jumped out of his seat, Egyptian Joe said something about the prodigal son returning, and Dan handed him a red, plastic cup brimming with beer.

He had made it through two rounds of judging when he looked up and spotted that dark green dress under the lamp light. Arms were folded and though he couldn't make out her face, he knew it was her. She didn't make any gesture for him to come over there, didn't make an attempt to cross the street or anything. Joe nudged him, turning his attention back to the girls and when he looked back again, she was gone.

It's the third day since "The Incident," as he called it, that she finally took his call. Told him how embarrassed she had been, told him that she was madder at him for not telling her he was leaving rather than she was for him actually leaving. He showed up with an apple pie and apologized.

Apple pie was the first pie they ever shared.

Cappie managed to convince Casey to go to the Kappa Tau Halloween party instead of the one at Omega Chi for Zeta Beta. It was a costume party but by the time the two of them manage to get down to the costume shop together the only two things left were an Ecoy and an Elvis costume. Casey was the only one who could fit in the Elvis costume and he laughed when he saw her slip on the glasses and move her hips in Elvis's trademark move. The Ecoy costume required a second person, and while Casey suggested he ask Evan, Cappie asked one of his fellow pledges, Wade, to do it instead. Wade relented but said Cappie had to be the horse's ass as the trade off.

The party was genuinely fun. Especially since Beaver spent most of the night telling people that his costume was that of a beaver and not of a skunk and Wade kept trying to get luau girl Ashleigh to go upstairs with him. But Cappie remembers most of the night to the soundtrack of Casey's laughter.

The party was in full swing when he led her into the house and up the stairs.

"I'm not sleeping with you, Cap."

"You say that now," he told her as he opened the door to the one room he knew nobody would be hooking up in. While the rest of the pledges spent the afternoon setting up for the "spook-tacular" party, Cappie picked up Joe's room, made sure it was presentable with clean sheets for him and Casey to sit upon, if nothing else.

"What's goin' on?" Casey asked slurring her 'G' in that way that Cappie loved so much as he shut the door behind them. He didn't have to answer; the hitch in her breath told him she had already figured it out.

"You bought a pie," she said opening the pink box.

"Pumpkin pecan," he told her as he handed her a fork. Not taking it, she turned to him and shoved the pie in his face.

"What the…" he sputtered as Casey laughed. He pulled the pie tin off his face, dropped it on the floor, and pulled her against him. She laughed as he rubbed his pie covered face into the curve of her neck, some of it getting into her black wig and the hem of her white jumpsuit.

"Cap, this is a rental," she squealed, squirming against him and pushing him away from her.

"You should have thought of that, Ms. Cartwright," he told her before she stood on her tippy toes and kissed him square on the lips, some of the pie filling transferring from his lips to hers. Breaking away, she ran the tip of her tongue over her lips.

"I think this is my new favorite."

They didn't do any more than kiss that night because he wasn't sure if it was the right time or not. There's something not quite right about having sex when you're the horse's ass and all, so Cappie didn't press the issue, didn't even try to slide his hand under her jumpsuit or anything.

But Cappie realized they were entering his favorite territory when, for the first time since they started dating, Casey let him take off her shirt during one of their make-out sessions in early November. He knew he wouldn't be able to stop once he unhooked the clasp of her bra but Casey didn't push him away while he fiddled with the clasp. Until, that is, Evan threw open the door to their dorm room.

"Oh, sorry," Evan mumbled. "Sorry."

Cappie could have punched him right in the face if he had the opportunity but Casey looked a bit relieved and Cappie didn't want seem like some sex crazy, pubescent boy by yelling at Evan for interrupting. Instead, he threw Casey her discarded shirt, pulled his own on, and pulled his wet, discarded towel from this morning over his erection. Evan stood there, mouth agape as Casey mumbled a 'call me' in Cappie's ear and ran out of the room.

"Thanks, roomie," Cappie spat at him as he headed for the community bathroom, towel in front of his "problem," for a cold shower.

It was five days before Thanksgiving break when the Omega Chis decided to get back at Kappa Tau for the flower stunt. Somehow, they managed to get their hands on a skunk and deposited in the basement of the KT house through a window. Beaver spooked the skunk and for days the basement, and the house, reeked.

"If it wasn't stupid, it wouldn't be boys fighting," Casey told him when he explained why he smelled so bad.

The night before her flight to Chicago, she ran her hand down his chest and mumbled those three _big_ words against his lips.

"I. Love. You."

He didn't response at first, at least not verbally. Instead, he captured her lips in his and kissed her until his lungs screamed for oxygen. Her lips were red, swollen from that kiss but she looked up at him expectantly and he decided to throw caution to the wind.

"Me too."

She didn't invite him to Chicago for the quick Thanksgiving break. Of course, he didn't expect her to but Evan's earlier offer for him to come to Cleveland with him had been revoked, although no word about it past between them.

Casey returned to campus five days later, regaled him with stories of her Uncle Bob getting drunk and eating the whole bowl of cranberry sauce. She asked him how his mini-vacation went and he told her the truth, said he had eaten at the International House of Pancakes on Thanksgiving Day since the school cafeteria was closed and all. She gave him a weird look, said she thought he was going to Evan's but trailed off when she realized the offer had been revoked.

And that was when Cappie realized Casey finally understood how far to the wayside his and Evan's friendship had fallen.


	2. Chapter 2

**Title:** Permeable

**Chapter:** Two

**Fandom:** Greek

**Coupling:** Casey/Cappie

**Words: **4,651

**Rating:** PG-13/T

**Author's Note:** I wrote my first legitimate sex scene for this story so that's why the rating moved up. If it's too awkward, or awful, then please let me know. There's definitely going to be one more part, maybe a fourth. It's all up in the air right now but **please review**. They make my day!

Casey spent most of December at the library studying for exams. He had offered to pinch the files for her classes from the Kappa Taus' stash but she refused saying she wanted to earn her grades the honest way. He didn't expect to see much of her before the winter break, which was fine because he did his thing and she did her thing. But it felt like he had been punched in the cohunes when he found out from Heath, the only pledge studying for exams, that Casey was spending her time at the library with Evan.

He wasn't worried, he told himself, just concerned that Casey might be overdoing it. But either way, he rustled up the textbooks he didn't sell for beer money, stole one of Evan's highlighters, and headed for the library.

It got really quiet when he walked up to them, their laughter subsiding at his presence.

"Cap, I thought you weren't going to study," Evan said as Cappie took the empty seat next to Casey.

"Just wanted to make sure my girlfriend wasn't overdoing it," Cappie replied with extra emphasis on girlfriend and Casey just rolled her eyes.

It was only about fifteen minutes after he got there that Cappie remember why he refused Casey's invitation to study in the first place and after he asked her if she wanted coffee for the third time, Casey told him just to go back to his dorm room, that she'd see him later. He sat there for a moment, debated between leaving her alone and going to play video games at the KT house and in the end, he decided to leave.

When he finally stumbled back the dorms around two in the morning, knocking over a chair as he groped his way to his bed in the dark, Evan flipped on the light above his bed and told him off.

"She sat here for three hours waiting for you to come back."

He tracked her down the next day around mid afternoon, waited outside the ZBZ house for the meeting to be over and rang the doorbell when he saw chairs and tables being moved back to their regular positions. Frannie opened the door, mumbled something about him finally showing up, and called Casey to the front door.

He started to make up some lie about getting stuck at the KT house but he can tell she doesn't buy it.

"Evan already lied for you, so don't bother," she told him as he swallowed the lump in his throat and held out the pie box to her.

"Chocolate crème," he informed her but she didn't take the pie and he was at a lost of what to do.

"Come back later," she told him as she began to shut the door. "And don't forget the pie."

He came back later and they ate the whole pie on the front porch of Zeta Beta while the girls spied on them through the window and made comments about calories and KT flings. But "it's just the Greek system" he told himself over her laughter.

The night before her flight to Chicago for winter break, she didn't stop him once he unclasped her bra, she didn't shove him away when he lowered his mouth to her rosy pink nipple. She moaned as he swirled his tongue and he didn't want her to feel like he was forcing her to go farther than she wanted, so he mustered up all the self-control he had and pulled away.

It took her a moment to realize he pulled away and he watched the realization settle into her face knowing that if he looked anywhere else all that self-control he didn't know he had would fly out the window.

"Don't stop…" she mumbled reaching out to touch him and it took every ounce of self-control for him to pull away even more.

"Casey, if I…if I keep going, I can't…I can't stop," he told her plainly wanting to make sure she understood. "Do you want this?"

"Yes," Casey replied as she nodded her head up and down violently. "Yes."

He really didn't need to be told twice because before she can finish her second 'yes,' he kissed her on the lips again, ran his fingers through her hair as he settled himself between her thighs. One hand remained tangled in her hair, the other fiddled with the button on her jeans.

Her hands roamed across his back, unsure of what to do and when he trails his kisses down her chest as his hands pulled away her jeans, she mumbled exactly what she was thinking.

"What am I to do?"

He didn't answer. Instead as his mouth came in contact with her other nipple, he grabbed her hands and positioned them on the front of his body. She hesitated for a brief moment realizing what the bulge in the front meant before she began fumbling with his belt buckle and the button of his jeans. He pulled away from her, choosing instead to concentrate on pulling off her panties rather than having her unbutton her jeans and Casey moans as his fingers touch the flesh of her inner thigh.

"Condom," Casey mumbled as Cappie pulled down his blue jeans, kicking them off to the farthest corner of his dorm room.

"Condom?" he asked as panic began to set in. Remember the one he kept in his wallet "incase of emergency," he fumbled over to his jeans, pulled out his wallet, and pulled out the small package. He made his way back over to her, noticing that Casey had pulled his comforter over the bottom half of her body. He flashed the tiny packet at her, wanted to prove to her that he had protection, and she watched with wide eyes as he pulled down his boxers, ripped open the package, and rolled it on.

He slid under the blanket, felt her trembling under him and mumbled words of love and reassurance in her ear as he pushed her legs apart. A moan escaped from her parted lips as his fingers brush between her legs and with the exhale of a breath, he pushed into her.

She whimpered, dug her nails into his back and he remained still for a moment so she could get used to it all.

"I. Love. You," he whispered in her ear before kissing away the only tear she let fall.

It was slow. Not driven by passion, energy, and need but rather exploration, love, and all the self-control in the world. Because he didn't want it to be about him and his needs, he waited for her to get to the edge of the end, wanting to hear her before he let himself go.

"Cap…_pie_."

When he woke up the next morning, they were a tangle of limbs, Casey molded perfectly into his body. Although, there really isn't any other option when it comes to a twin bed.

He kissed her forehead, slid out of bed, pulled on his clothes from yesterday, and grabbed his wallet off the floor. Pausing at the door, he realized he didn't want her thinking he just left her, so he grabbed Evan's whiteboard for studying off his desk and scrawled note on it. He propped it up on Evan's bed with his pillow so it would be the first thing she saw when she woke up and slipped out of the room.

_Case, I'll be right back. Don't move. -Cap_

When he came back, Casey was still asleep in his bed and Cappie couldn't help the smile that broke out on his face when he realized the sheet was only covering her lower half. He put the pie box and the bottle of milk on the top of the mini fridge and the box of condoms, not that he was presumptuous, in the top drawer of his unused desk.

Sitting down on the bed, he leaned down and kissed Casey's forehead.

"Case," he mumbled in her ear over and over until she opened her eyes and gave him a small, sheepish smile.

"Morning," she said as she pushed herself up on her hands but once she realized she was naked, she grabbed the sheet and pulled it to her chest. He laughed but pulled off his t-shirt and handed it to her. She pulled it on and sat up, wincing a little as she did so. He noticed but held out a fork to her instead.

"What's this for?" She asked him as he stood and pulled off his jeans.

"It's hot in here," he told her. "Or maybe it's just you."

Casey blushed and Cappie grabbed the pie box with one hand and the remote and bottle of milk with the other.

"Scoot," he told her and Casey pushed herself over to the other side of the bed, wincing with each movement.

"Painful?" He asked as he sits down next to her and Casey slowly nodded her head yes, refusing to look him in the eye.

"This should help," he told her as he opened the pie box. "Coconut custard."

Cappie decided it was a good thing he bought that box of condoms as Casey slide out of his grasp and hurried out of his dorm room saying she was going to miss her flight if she didn't get going. And he knew for the rest of his life coconut custard would be equated with that hitch in her voice as she said his name.

Cap…_pie_.

Winter break seemed to inch by. The dorms were closed two days after Casey left, so he temporarily moved into the KT house and spent his vacation with Egyptian Joe. Casey called almost everyday, told him how much she missed him and how she couldn't wait to get back to him, to campus, to Zeta Beta. And he liked knowing he was the first thing she listed when she thought about what she missed most.

Three days before she came back, before campus came back to life, he came down with strep throat and when she got back, Joe and the other Kappa Taus who came back early told her that she was his responsibility because he's a pain the ass when he's sick.

She made him chicken soup but it was too hot. She heated up his hot compress but it was too cold by the time she got it to his room. It took her three days of frustration at him before she realized what his mother knew for years. She made it fun, because he didn't want to take it when she offered it in the plastic cup, by pouring it into a shot glass. And before he could mumble a thank you, he fell fast asleep.

He was almost over it when he realized what she had been doing. Saint Casey, as the KTs called her, slipped out the window and came back four hours later when it was time for more medicine. He didn't tell her that he knew her secret, let her think he thought she sat beside his sick bed all day and all night.

Casey's roommate rarely left her dorm room and Cappie didn't know Evan's spring schedule, didn't bother to ask, so sex wasn't frequent between them in the first two months of the new semester. And Cappie was beginning to feel guilty for hanging out with the KTs rather than her, so he invited her out to karaoke with the guys at Dobler's.

Casey refused to sing but he took to the microphone like a fish takes to water, leaving her to sit next to Beaver and Joe.

"I'm you little gave boy," Cappie sung before he pointed out into the crowd at Casey. "Do you…wanna be a cavegirl? Do you wanna be?"

As the music ended, Cappie took a swig of his water and smiled out at the crowd.

"Thank you," he replied to their applause as Casey made her way up to him, purse in hand.

"It's, uh, getting late," she told him as he bent down to hear her better. "Do you mind if we call it a night?"

"Oh, uh. My adoring public needs me," he replied with an odd facial expression before holding a finger up to his lips. "Just one more. One more."

She rolled her eyes and relented.

"Fine."

"Thank you," he replied before she headed towards the bar and he grabbed the microphone. "Alright, we'll do one more."

Asking for music suggestions, he finally settled on a song and began strumming along the opener on his air guitar.

"…I'm the steering wheel," he sang as he made the appropriate gestures.

As the music ended, he smiled out at the crowd and knew exactly what he wanted to sing next.

"Alright, this next song goes out to the most beautiful girl n the world. No," he pointed at Beav as he spoke, "no, not you, Beav. Miss Casey Cartwright."

He glanced out at the crowed trying to find her but when he did, his face feel and he wishedhe hadn't.

He didn't say anything about seeing her leave with Evan, just that he wished she had stuck around a little while longer. She didn't mention Evan either, just said that she was tired and had class the next morning.

He rented a room for after the Hell Raisers and Heartbreakers party the Zeta Betas were putting on for a little pre-Valentine's Day fun. Made an effort to come since he broke off their date the night before last, although, technically, he did ask Casey to stick around and watch _Old School_ with the guys. But she acted really disgusted when some of the guys started getting stoned.

Cappie was never one to get into drugs heavily but he figured what was the harm in trying it that night. Casey kissed him on the cheek, told him she was leaving, and mumbled something about "not doing this anymore."

The Omega Chis, once again, weren't to keen on letting him in the door but Ashleigh was the one who dragged him into the house.

"Ohmigod," she said quickly, slurring all her words together. "I…we thought you weren't coming."

"Party started at eight. It's eight fifteen," Cappie told her, a little taken aback by her comment.

"Party started at seven," Ashleigh replied before pointing out Casey. She was standing over by the bar talking to Frannie, some guy from Omega Chi, and the Omega Chi president, Dino. He was going to get a drink and then catch her when she wasn't mingling but the Omega Chi puts his hand on her arm and Cappie went into autopilot as he crossed the room. He put his hand on Casey's arm, right above the Omega Chi's, and once Casey turned to see who it was, she gave him the world's largest smile.

"Cap," she mumbled.

"Well, look who finally decided to show up," Frannie mumbled beside him sourly.

"Sorry, Case. The KTs' invite must have the time wrong," he told her and Casey made a gesture of all being forgiven. Awkward silence passed between them, Dino, Frannie, and the guy Cappie didn't even bother to introduce himself to before Dino asked Frannie to dance and the guy wandered off to prey on someone else's girlfriend. Casey kept glancing at the dance floor and Cappie, who didn't do touchy, feely slow dances, relented and asked her to dance.

Casey laughed every time he fumbled, every time he stepped on some Omega Chi's feet.

"You're doing that on purpose," she told him.

"Maybe I am," he whispered in her ear. "Maybe I'm not."

After a little more fumbling and a little more toe stepping, he excused himself to get them both a drink from the bar. He fiddled with the caddy of small straws and napkins while he waited for the bartender to fill his drink order, a lemon drop for Casey and a beer for him.

"I don't know what she sees in him," a shrill voice from behind him said and he darted a glance to see who they were. Standing at the end of the bar, Frannie and three other girls huddled together, girly cocktails in hand.

"He's so…"

"Unrefined," one of them filled in for the other.

"We'll let it run its course, wait for him to fuck up," Frannie told them. "He's just a fling."

"A fling she says she in love with."

"Don't worry, ladies," Frannie replied. "It will fall apart."

He resisted the urge to spill his drink on them. Instead, he turned and brushed past them without any snappy comeback, a first for him.

"Excuse me, ladies."

He spent most of the night dancing with Casey, trying to push those words out of his head and concentrate on the reason why he was there. But early the next morning, when she could barely keep her eyes open long enough to finish off the lemon meringue pie; he whispered it just loudly enough so she'd think she heard it.

"I love you. A lot."

They didn't see much of one another over the next few days. Of course, they saw one another for a brief quickie between her class and his time with the Kappa Taus but they didn't go on any dates. The Kappa Taus had already decided they weren't going to go to the all-Greek ball when Casey brought it up.

"Case, it's a _ball_."

"Come on, Cap," she told him as he traced lazy circles on her back. "It'll be fun."

"You know what's fun? You. Me. Pie. In bed."

She rolled her eyes and proceeded to tell him how all the pledges were required to go, how much fun it would be, and that she already bought her dress. He relented because he knew it would make her happy and she squealed when he said yes.

"Thank you," Casey exclaimed and kissed him. "Seven o'clock. Sharp."

Some of the guys made fun of him for going but Wade and Beaver both, surprisingly, had dates and Joe invited them all over to the house for a little pre-party while they got ready to leave. There was alcohol, of course, and weed but stayed away from the weed because he knew Casey wouldn't be pleased if he showed up stone.

It was maybe two and a half hours after he arrived when Frannie busted open the door and saw him sitting in a beanbag chair playing videogames with Joe in his room.

"Big sis," Cappie exclaimed before his voice dropped lower. "In law."

"I tried to stop her but she scared me," Beaver told them over Frannie's shoulder.

"Why haven't you gone to pick up Casey?" Frannie demanded. "She's been waiting almost an hour!"

"Aw, man," Cappie replied as he dropped the control and jumped up. "I'm such an idiot."

"Not the word I would use," Frannie replied. "Hurry!"

"Lady," Egyptian Joe interrupted with his hands up as Cappie tried to jam his feet into his cowboy boots. "Whoa. Take a pill. If my LB says he'll get there, sweetheart, he'll get there."

"Stand down, Joe," Cappie warned.

"Yeah, relax," Beaver told her. "Cappie's almost ready."

"Hey, Lennie, do me a favor and go pet some rabbits downstairs," Frannie told Beaver.

"I don't get it," Beaver replied.

"Of course, you don't. It's a literary reference anyone with a high school diploma would understand. Unless, of course, you're a dumb jock who eats his way through a public education system with an eight grade reading comprehension. And you," she said turning her attention to Joe. "What are you now? Forty-five? The war's over. No more hiding at college to dodge the draft and a miserable future of a minimum wage paying job.:

"I got no where else to go," Joe barked before he walked out of the room followed by Beaver. "I got no where else to go."

"You," Frannie started as she stormed over to him. "Well, if I was Casey, I would have sent you into the sun by now but she, for some reason unknown to God or man, actually loves you, so you have to get over there. You're hurting one of the most amazing girls and believe me, you will regret it."

Cappie hurried but he couldn't seem to get his other foot into his cowboy boot.

"Okay, this is taking way too long," Frannie said grabbing his other shoe and his arm.

"Okay, okay," Cappie said. "Should I wear the tie?"

"I don't care," Frannie replied.

He and the guys drove over to the ZBZ house to pick up Casey while Frannie went back to the party but the house was empty save for Betsy, Casey's pledge sister, who had already stumbled home drunk.

"Casey's at the party," Betsy slurred.

It was a quick drive over to where the ball was being held at some fancy hotel but Beaver managed to get drunk in the time it took to get over there and he had to help him into the hotel.

"Okay, no more pre-partying on the way over in the car, okay?" he asked Beaver as he helped his already drunk friend into the ballroom, his shoulders holding up his friend by his right arm.

"Yeah," Beaver replied as he grabbed a glass of champagne off a passing tray.

"Oh! There…look at that," he mumbled to Beaver as he took the glass of champagne out of his hand and he patted his friend's chest as Beaver mumbled something back and pointed out into the crowd.

"Hey, it's Bing."

His face fell and his heart started beating faster when he spotted Casey dancing off to the side of the dance floor, with Evan's arms wrapped around her waist and hers around his neck. He pulled away from Beaver and left Wade to deal with his drunk pledge brother.

"No way," he said and at the intrusion, Evan pulled away from Casey with a big grin.

"Cappie," Evan started, "It's not what you think."

"I thought you had to study tonight," he replied sharply before darting a glance at Casey. "I didn't think you'd be at a party with my girlfriend."

"I went to your room," Casey informed him. "You weren't there."

"Listen, I just didn't want to let her down, man," Evan told him. "Okay? That's all."

"Are you saying I did?" Cappie asked, taking a step forward.

"Are you saying you didn't?"

"Okay, everybody," Casey interrupted. "Let's just back up."

"I should have known you were going to leave Kappa Tau for those white-collard dushes. I didn't think you were going to make a move on Casey."

"Hey," Evan fired back. "I wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for you."

"Oh, right. Blame me. But this is about you, Evan. You're the same preppy, tagalong from camp who needs my help to get into Kappa Tau."

"Okay! Stop!" Casey yelled at him but Cappie was so angry he can't. "Stop."

"And you know, I didn't even have to have a make over to get in," Cappie continued. "I miss that silver spoon fed Chambers we all know and tolerate."

"You know," Evan fired back, "better than being spawned by a couple of deadhead losers."

With a resounding crack, Cappie's right fist smacked into Evan's jaw and the later was punched again by the date of a girl he crashed into. Stumbling back towards Cappie, the KT pledge grabbed his left arm as Evan right hooked him. Together, they both fell to the ground. Scrambling, it was Evan who managed to get on top of Cappie and punched him in the jaw before they are pulled away from one another.

Through a haze, he glanced up at Casey and tried to interpret the look on her face as Wade and Beaver helped pull him to his feet.

"Case," he mumbled as Wade helped him stand up straight but Casey wouldn't look at him and instead directed her attention towards Wade.

"Get him out of here."

"Casey," Cappie tried again but Casey sunk down next to Evan on the floor and Wade pulled him away.

It was Wade who helped him back to the dorm room that night and Joe let him crash on the couch in the basement to sleep off his anger. Heath told him the next morning that the presidents of all the fraternities and the sororities had been pulled into a meeting with Dean Bowman, that the all-Greek ball was officially cancelled indefinitely.

And, Heath added, when the brawl stopped and he was heading back to the dorms, he saw Casey sitting next to Evan on the floor tending to his wounds.

And something about Evan asking about him and Casey saying "what about him."

Cappie called Casey about a thousand times that day. And the next day. And the next day. He went to her dorm but her roommate said Casey hadn't come back since before the ball. And when he rang the chirpy doorbell of the Zeta Beta Zeta house, Molly slammed the door in his face.

In the end, he decided that what he needed to do was leave Casey alone, let her cool off.

Joe told him he could move into the Kappa Tau house later that night. The only room empty was the one where they stashed the kegs, the unmentionables incase of a surprise inspection and Joe told him he had to move all of that out before he moved in. But Cappie was too tired to do so and just pushed everything up against one wall.

Casey still wasn't talking to him, wasn't returning his phone calls when the annual Mr. Purr-fect contest rolled around. She had mentioned it before the ball, told him that she had signed up to be the Kappa Tau's coach because "surprisingly no one else wanted to."

Joe told them at the pre-meeting meeting that they were not required to attend, that the KTs usually ignore the whole thing but Cappie raised his hand from his spot on top of the dog house in the "pledge pen" and wasn't embarrassed when he asked for the guys to participate.

"Casey's our coach…so, please."

The guys scoffed but when the doorbell rang two hours later, they were all assembled in the living room waiting for her. Casey gave her spiel but the guys were too busy salivating over her legs to pay attention and Cappie was too busy trying to figure out what to say. She sighed, mumbled something about how the Zeta Betas are so glad that the KTs are participating, and started to head out of the room.

"Casey," he mumbled as he grabbed her arm and stopped her.

"Cappie," she hissed. "Let go of me."

"Casey," he mumbled again and out of his peripheral vision he noticed that they were alone. The Kappa Taus certainly know how to exit hastily, Cappie told himself as Casey tired to jerk her arm away.

"Let go of me," she hissed again.

"I'm sorry," Cappie said. "I was…I didn't mean for it to get out of hand. And…But…He insulted my parents, Case."

"I know," she mumbled.

"And you where there with him and I…"

"You jumped to conclusions," she hissed before her voice dropped in volume. "You didn't even let me explain."

"I…I know but..."

"Cap, I…" she started but dropped her gaze to the floor. With a pause, she swallowed a lump in her throat and looked back up at him. "I think we should take a break."

"Case…"

"Just for a little while, Cap. I…I just need to…we should take a break."

He didn't know what to do. He wanted to tell her that he loves her, that a break is the last thing in the world he wanted. But she wanted one, so he just nodded his head and watched her walk out the door.


	3. Chapter 3

**Title:** Permeable

**Chapter:** Three

**Fandom:** Greek

**Coupling:** Casey/Cappie

**Words: **3,140

**Rating:** PG-13/T

By the time the fund raising event rolled around, Cappie decided it was hard to take a break when you are on the same team. Every time he turned around, Casey was there at every event, cheering him on. Technically, she was cheering the Kappa Taus on but he competed in almost every event. Anything to be by her.

The guys picked him to compete as Mr. Purr-fect in the final competition. Pledges aren't allowed to compete in the competition, Casey told them. But her competitive side kicked in when she realized that no one else would do it even though they were tied with Omega Chi. She talked to Mallory, the Mr. Purr-fect organizer for Zeta Beta, promised to do Mallory's laundry for a week, and for some odd reason, Mallory relented.

Cappie figured that since her Omega Chi boyfriend, Preston, broke up with her two days before the competition, Mallory only wanted to help them out to get back at Preston.

He and Casey spent a lot of time together figuring out his talent.

"What _are_ you good at?" Casey asked him exasperated. They were sitting on top of his bed in his new bedroom. A dangerous situation to put herself in for someone who wants to take a break, Cappie thought to himself.

"You mean, besides sex?" Cappie asked her with a smile so she'd know that was a joke.

"Not appropriate for the stage, Cap."

It was Casey who suggested he sing since he's _so_ good at karaoke. He asked her to stick around, practice with him but she bit her lip and declined.

He got to Dobler's early that night and watched as Casey sauntered up to him in a short blue jean skirt and a pink top.

"You look great, Case."

"Uh, thanks," she replied. "Are you ready? Have your swim suit? And your karaoke outfit? And…"

"Beav's bringing it," he told her and Casey furrowed her brows at him.

"Cappie, I cannot believe you would trust Bea…"

"Relax, Case," he interrupted placing his hands on her shoulders to calm her down. "It's all right over there."

Casey glanced over at the duffle bag by the brink wall and sighed.

"You did that just to toy with me," she mumbled.

"Maybe," he told her.

"Kappa Tau's up next," Mallory called from the corner of the stage where she was watching the competition.

"That's me," he told Casey and she nodded her head.

"Good…break a leg," she replied.

He had the whole crowd tapping their feet with his rendition of P!nk's "Get This Party Started" and his swimsuit appearance received catcalls. Although, Cappie was pretty sure that most of them came from Beaver.

"Mr. Kappa Tau Gamma," Caroline said, addressing him in front of the crowd. "What has been your favorite Greek memory so far?"

"Uh," Cappie stated before pausing. "Rush night with the boring cups and the body shots."

The Kappa Taus won by a long shot and even though Casey, whose body froze at his response, had already left by the time he managed to break away from his brothers, she did send him a next message late that night.

_I like Rush night w/boring cups & body shots 2._

The break ended a day later.

March's spring break finally rolled around and in between bits of pie, he and Casey decided how they would spend it.

As the house came alive, he and Casey in a tangle of sheets and naked limbs each made a list of what they wanted to do in Myrtle Beach. He didn't listen to most of what she wanted to do but the off handed comment of wanting to go skinny dipping made his ears perk up and he made her promise between kisses that she would for sure go skinny dipping.

She laughed, slide out of bed, pulled on her bra and dress, and ran her hand through her hair as she told him she had to go because she and Frannie we going to go shopping for Spring Break clothes and she needed to go get cute.

"You already are cute, Case," he mumbled as she promised she'd meet him at his bar for pool tonight.

She showed him her "formal" list that night as he tried to teach her how to play pool. And he couldn't hold back his laughter at her wish to ride a banana boat and play a drinking game.

"With your gag reflexes?" He asked her and Casey threw him a look. "It's just that, Case, you've tried the whole drinki…"

"Don't remind me," she replied as she set up for her next shot and he smirked when she missed it by a mile.

And a half.

"And a belly button ring, Ms. Cartwright?" He asked with fake shock. "I thought you Zeta Beta girls didn't have belly button rings because…What was it? You're women of class?"

She rolled her eyes, ripped the list out of his hands, and stuffed it into her back pocket.

"You're never going to let that go, are you?"

"Not a chance."

It's tradition for the Kappa Taus to drive to Myrtle in the trusty, yellow school bus and even if it wasn't, Cappie wasn't about to ride down to Myrtle in the back seat of Casey's car as she and Ashleigh talked about boys, clothes, and their cycles.

"Two girls driving down to their first college spring break talking about boys, clothes, and their cycles. Case, that's a tampon commercial."

"But you'd be there."

"So it's two girls driving down to their first college spring break talking about clothes and their cycles. No, thanks."

They met up the first night there after Casey and Ashleigh rode on the giant yellow banana boat at the local nightclub where Casey got in because she's hot and he got in because of his stellar fake I.D. skills. It was loud and obnoxious and everything Cappie had imagined it to be.

It wad the day before spring break ended that Casey decided to go through with getting her belly button pierced. It wasn't hard to find a tattoo parlor to do the piercing and Casey settled back into the chair with a look of panic on her face.

"That's a new needle, right? Because I really, really don't want Hepatic C or AIDS or…"

"Case," he said as he took a swig of his spiked smoothie and she turned her head to look at him.

"You don't have to do this," he reminded her as he watched the tattoo covered tattooist open a brand new package.

"Cap, I have to," she replied and he raised an eyebrow at her. "I _want _to."

It hurt like a son of a bitch he gathered as he watched Casey wince and let out a small yelp. But her face broke out in a large grin when she saw the ring in her belly button and Cappie couldn't help but smile back at her.

"I did it."

"Yep," Cappie had replied.

They met up with Beaver, Wade, and Egyptian Joe that night at one of the bars on the beach where the cheap beer is flowing. As he pulled Casey through the crowd, he spotted Frannie and President Caroline and heir apparent Elise staring straight at him and he pulled Casey even closer to him. They turned their heads, coving their mouths with glossy curtains of straightened hair and he knew they were talking about "the KT fling" once again.

"Ow," Casey yelped as someone's body brushed against her new belly button ring and Cappie returned his attention to her.

"Painful?"

"No," Casey told him through gritted teeth as someone else's body hits her belly button ring.

"Here," Cappie said handing her a beer the bartender placed in front of him. "Beer. Nature's pain reliever."

Casey took the red plastic cup, took a swig, and grimaced.

"You wanna get out of here?" She asked him as Cappie scanned the crowd for his friends. "Take a stroll on the beach or something."

"Case, we just got here," he told her followed by a quick glance down at her. "Come on, it's Spring Break, Case."

"Spring Break!" The crowd around them cheered and held up their own red, plastic cups. Beer sloshed onto the floor and on Casey's bikini.

"We're supposed to be here. Getting drunk. With our friends. Not walking on the beach like we're in some ta…"

"Tampon commercial," Casey finished quietly as Cappie greeted Beaver and Wade.

"Cap," she said, touching his elbow lightly. "I'm going to go get some Tylenol or something. Are you sure you…"

"Come on, Cap. There's a wet t-shirt contest about to start," Beaver told him as he dragged him away.

"See, Case," Cappie yelled back at her. "This is what spring break is all about."

After they returned to CRU, he and Casey fell back into their regular routines. Casey went to class. Cappie partied with the Kappa Taus. And somewhere along the way, they crammed in sex and pie in bed.

March turns into April and when Casey's birthday rolls around, he figured he probably should do something nice for her. So he picked up his room, got Ethel down at the bakery to make a birthday cake flavored pie, and faxed in an order to Chipotle for two chicken burritos to-go for a picnic in his bedroom.

He was making his way to Zeta Beta to pick up Casey when he ran into Casey's pledge sister, Kristen Maloney, who informed him that Frannie, Caroline, Elise, and Ashleigh had already taken Casey to her birthday party and why-the-hell-wasn't-he-there-yet.

There? At the birthday party he wasn't even invited to?

He was never much of a party crasher. Okay, that was a lie but he didn't want to crash Casey's party. Still, he walked past it to make sure that Casey was alright and see if she looked like she wanted to be bailed out.

It was at Dobler's and he was a bit surprised that despite the amount of time he spent there, even he didn't get the memo that Dobler's would be closed for a private party on April 4th. Sarah Fait, the one once described to him as Ashleigh's lesbian, man-hating big sis was on door duty but Ashleigh spotted him and pulled him into the party, ignoring Sarah's protests.

"Look what I found, birthday girl," Ashleigh told Casey.

"Cap," Casey greeted him with a warm smile. "Frannie said you told her you couldn't make it."

"That's funny, _Frannie_," Cappie replied directly at the brunette standing by Casey's side. "You didn't say anything to me about a party."

"Well, you probably forgot," Frannie replied before excusing herself to get another drink from the bar.

Casey's eyebrows furrowed but he could tell just by looking at her that she wasn't surprised.

"Listen, Case," Cappie said as he pulled her present out of his pant's pocket. "I'm obviously not wanted here…"

"Cappie," she began to protest but he cut her off.

"Here," he said as he handed her the horribly wrapped present. The KTs don't have any fancy wrapping paper and he wasn't about to go out and spend five bucks on a roll of wrapping paper for a tiny little boy so he used the brown paper bag the Jack Daniels comes in instead. She took it and as her fingers undid the wrapping, he slipped out the back door.

She was wearing the locket he gave her a week later when he decided that they should protest protest. The entire campus had turned into one picket line after another and he was sick of it. So they took a seat in the middle of the administration building's foyer right next to where prospective students and their parents came in.

Twenty minutes later, they were handcuffed and taken down to the police station. Ashleigh came and bailed them out and Casey wouldn't stop yelling at him the entire way back to Greek Row.

"Arrested, Cappie! That's on my record!"

He told her to relax and convinced her to come upstairs with him so he could apologize. There, after a quick quickie, they shared a blueberry crème pie in bed.

"I'm still mad at you for talking me into that," she informed him and he told her to loosen up.

"It's on my record, Cap!"

Casey had the flu during the ZBZ Crush party. Wasn't allowed to go since she was throwing up and all but Cappie thought it might be for the better and the two spent the night together in her dorm room watching old episodes of Gilmore Girls. He ate the chicken soup he brought for her and she dipped in and out of consciousness against his chest. At eleven-fifty, when she finally fell asleep and didn't wake up three minutes later, he slipped out of her dorm room and headed back to Kappa Tau.

But as he passed by Dobler's where the party was being held, he realized she never even gave him an invitation before she got sick.

May came and Casey spent her days studying at the library while he spent his days at end of the year parties. They didn't really see much of one another that month and she was slightly distant always saying things like, "Cap, I can't. I really need to study" and the like. Yet, on the last day before she headed back to Chicago and he headed back to Camp Kitchiwahwah they spent the night making love slowly.

"Cap…_pie_."

Eleven weeks seemed like the longest time. And on his first week back at home, at camp he regaled Lily and Benjie with stories of college life. Lily wasn't really interested in the stories of the Kappa Tau's wild parties and despite being the one who introduced him to _Old School_, neither did Benjie.

However, both of their eyes lit up when he mentioned Casey.

"Oh, she sounds wonderful, Cappie," his mother had squealed and Cappie guessed that a mother can never be a free spirit when her son mentions a girlfriend.

"Why don't you invite her down here? She can be a counselor with Lily," Benjie told him as he pointed in the direction of the arts and crafts cabin.

His parents didn't have to tell him twice and Cappie headed down to the lake to call Casey. The lake was only place he could get a signal and even then it was fuzzy and spotty, making their long distance relationship hard to understand.

Casey was a bit hesitant, unsure of the whole idea but a week later he drove his parents' veggie-oil-run-car into Reed, the small town right between Camp Fern and Camp Kitchiwahwah, to meet Casey's bus.

When the bus pulled up, Cappie wiped his sweaty hands on his green Camp Kitchiwahwah shirt and tried to steady his breathing. A million worries raced through his head and all he could keep saying to himself was that she didn't come and he didn't get the message because of his crappy cell signal.

He stared straight ahead watching the first two passengers get off the old Grayhound bus and when he spotted that familiar blond hair tied up in pigtails, he breathed a sigh of relief. She scanned the crowd not noticing him advancing towards her and she squealed when he pulled her up against him and smashed his lips onto hers.

"I hope that's not how you greet everyone," Cappie told her when they broke apart under a need for oxygen. She laughed and kissed him again.

The two weeks passed too quickly. Casey spent her morning and afternoon with Lily, leaving only the early morning hours after all the campers had gone to bed for him. They would usually walk through the woods to the lake and lay side by side on the dock telling one another little tidbits of their lives, of their dreams. It was on that dock that Cappie learned that Casey really wanted a bunch of kids, like four or five or six.

The comment didn't scare him.

Maybe it was because he was an only child too, or so he thought at the time. Or maybe it was because the idea of having all of that sex with Casey to get her those four or five or six kids appealed to him. Either way, that night on that dock was when he really started seeing himself with her a year from now. Ten years from now. Fifty years from now.

On that dock he started dreaming about little girls with dirty blond curls, Casey's smile, and maybe his eyes. Six of them, one right after the other, and all of them with their daddy wrapped around their little fingers. And maybe a boy with Cappie's brown hair and Casey's brown eyes thrown into the mix too. Although, six sisters would be entirely too much for one boy to handle and besides, Cappie's goal in life had always been to surround himself with beautiful girls.

He didn't breathe a word of this to Casey. Not one word of his wish, his desire. He walked her back to his parents' cabin where she was staying while he acted as the camp counselor for his old cabin and when she mumbled an 'I love you,' he replied with a soft 'Good' before capturing her lips again.

The night before she left it was her that pulled him into the lakeside storage shed and after he knocked down the spider webs hanging from the rafters, she reached out pulled at the drawstrings of his swim trunks. A spider ran across her hand and Casey jumped back with a scream.

"Ah, this brings back memories," Cappie mumbled and Casey glanced around the shed before she nodded her head with understanding.

"Are you gonna ask to keep my bra too?" Casey asked him with a laugh.

"Only to have Evan steal it from me? No way," Cappie replied pretending like he didn't feel Casey tense up at his former roommate and former best friend's name.

At the bus stop the next morning he made her promise not to wear the strappy numbers she's been wearing around camp in Chicago and with a final passionate kiss that draws attention from the old ladies in front of Mary Beth's sewing store, he let her slip out of his arms and board the bus. She paused, stepped off the bus, and kissed him one last time.

"I love you," she mumbled and looked up at him expectantly. He tried to find the words to say what he felt but instead he just mumbled something about missing her and let her bored the bus again. As it kicked up dirt and pulled out of town, he found the words he needed to say.

"I love you too, Case."


	4. Chapter 4

**Title:** Permeable

**Chapter:** Four

**Fandom:** _Greek_

**Coupling:** Casey/Cappie

**Words: **3,102

**Rating:** PG-13/T

**Author's Note: **I apologize for this being so late, but I've had some health problems lately that interfered with my writing. I can't promise that _all_ of my _Greek_ stories will be finished, at least not any time soon, but I wanted to get this up here for you all to enjoy.

He doesn't get to talk to her much, what with the bad cell service and the overall lack of time. But the final days of summer slip through his fingers like sand, and the next thing he knows, he's back at Cyprus-Rhodes.

He's helping Casey move into her and Ashleigh's new room in the Zeta Beta house, carrying two boxes up the stairs at the time, sliding past Casey's "sisters," and trying to ignore their dirty looks and unconcealed disgust.

"I thought she broke up with him," one hiss to the other.

"So did I," the other hiss back to the first.

He sighs, knowing this is only the tip of the iceberg for what Casey has to put up with, has to ignore every single day. If he was less selfish, less in love, he'd martyr himself in the name of making her life easier, but he's not and he deludes himself into thinking that it makes their relationship stronger.

Later, he'd realize how badly they were both suffering from Romeo and Juliet syndrome – the belief that love would keep them together despite the two warring groups. But, right now, he's oblivious.

"Well, babe," he drawls out like he's some trashy mover who's about to hit on the lady who hired him. "What do you say you and I christen your new pad?"

"Ew," Ashleigh replies from her place by the closet behind him, dropping the article of clothing she was about to hang up to the shiny hardwood floor. "Gross."

Casey glares at him, but the corners of her mouth are turned upward and she's fighting back a smile.

"Don't worry, roommie," Cappie calls over his shoulder. "We won't do it in your bed. We'll save that one for later."

"Casey!" Ashleigh snaps, calling for her to put a stop to her boyfriend's suggestions.

"Casey," a sickeningly sweet, plastic voice calls from the doorway. He freezes and Casey's half smile falls as she bends her body to look past him.

"Hi, Frannie," Cappie greets with a sigh and a roll of his eyes.

"Casey, let me remind you that there are to be no boys in the Zeta Beta Zeta house," Frannie sternly reminds her as she crosses the room, her heels click clacking on the hardwood floors. "At any time."

"Oh, um," Casey stammers out. "Cappie was just leaving."

"Good," Frannie replies. "Don't forget about the sister bonding sleepover tonight."

He frowns. She shrugs her shoulders. Frannie smirks, slipping her arm into link with Casey's.

"Bye, Crappie," Frannie tells him.

"It's Cappie," he corrects, disappointed that Casey says nothing. He makes a move to kiss her, but Frannie's one step ahead, already pulling Casey out of the room toward her own.

"I'm trying to decide if I should go with curtains or Roman shades in my room."

---

They both kind of ignore one another during Rush Week – what with putting the new pledges through the same hell they went through last year and trying to be full fledge members of their respective house.

She attends the Mount Vesuvius party, but it seems like Frannie is glued to her side and Ashleigh's not far behind. Frannie drags her off to some function at Omega Chi two days before classes begin, leaving him to sit at Kappa Tau and wait for her to come back.

But being Cappie, he starts a game of beer pong out back against Wade to pass the time, and by the time Casey arrives on the doorstep of the KT house, he's already drunker than a smunk. Skunk.

_Whatever_.

And, once again, she plants a kiss on his cheek and asks him not to drink so much.

---

He and Casey have their first class together tomorrow morning, and he goes because she's going and it's always a good idea to show up for the first three classes. Find out when the exams are. What term papers he'll need to write.

But when he gets there, most of the seats are taken, including the one by Casey. He makes his way over to her, intent on asking whoever's seated if they would move so he can sit next to her.

After all, Casey's _his_ girlfriend.

But he's out of luck when he sees that the person sitting next to her is no other than Mr. Evan Chambers himself.

"Crappie," Evan greets him, and Cappie briefly wonders if Evan's been spending time with Frannie.

"Evanesance," he bites back.

"I was just telling Casey about how well Rush is shaping up for us."

"Breaking the rules already are we?" He asks before quoting the official CRU Rush rules verbatim. "No rushing before the first day of official classes."

"As if you and that flea-infested house you call a fraternity actually follow the rules."

"Houses don't make fraternities, Evan. People do," he says. "Didn't they teach you that in English 101?"

"Like you would know," Evan bites back, standing up to square off with Cappie. Casey sits between them, Cappie standing in the aisle and Evan standing next to his chair. "How many times did you show up for class? None?"

"Alright, guys," Casey interrupts, looking increasingly uncomfortable as more and more attention is given to them by their fellow classmates. "Let's just calm down and…"

"Yeah, Bing," Cappie interrupts, using the nickname bestowed upon Evan by the Kappa Taus. "Why don't you go calm down over there and I'll calm down next to my girlfriend?"

"She's not going to be your girlfriend much longer," Evan replies.

"Excuse me?" Cappie bites back, shifting his gaze from Evan to Casey and back again.

"Oh, you'll fuck it up sooner or later, Crappie," Evan declares as a hard finger pokes Cappie in the shoulder.

"Mr…" the middle age woman prompts, turning Cappie's attention to her.

"Cappie," he replies.

"Mr. Cappie, take a seat or get out of my class."

He nods and glares at Evan before sulking his way to an empty seat in the back of the room.

---

"_She's not going to be your girlfriend much longer."_

As he suffers through Professor Laverty's lecture – Evan's words reverberating in his head and seeping into his every thought – he watches her closely. Evan tries to catch her attention, tries to engage her in a conversation on one tattered, ripped from his notebook note after another, but she ignores him like she knows he's watching. The minutes tick slowly and he runs a hand through his shaggy hair as he stills his tapping leg. He doesn't like being a jealous boyfriend – it's really not his style – but this is Casey Cartwright.

_Casey Cartwright_.

And he, he's so far gone with her that the idea…the very idea of her and _him_ makes Cappie sick to his stomach. He shakes the thought out of his brain and tries to un-fixate his gaze on the back of her blonde hair. It's only when he hears Casey's melodic laughter that the fear he's been trying to ward off clinches him again.

He catches her after class, his eyes looking for truth in Evan's words in hers. But she smiles at him, though, with that reassurance smile, plants a soft kiss against his lips, and he drags her off in the direction of Dobbler's. She wants to do something that doesn't involve drinking, but he tells her that the Kappa Taus have already started their celebration of a new school year, of a new round of pledging.

And besides it may only be eleven o'clock, but it's five o'clock somewhere, he reminds her.

It's later, through a haze of alcohol, that he realizes that she looked absolutely miserable through most of their little – alright, huge – last minute party.

---

They spend the Saturday before their first anniversary – the big one, as in a whole year – in bed together. The light hitting her hair in such a way that she looks completely angelic, and he smirks at her before going down on her because there's nothing angelic about the way she acts in bed with him sometimes.

He likes hearing his name on her lips as she cums; tells her that as soon as her orgasm subsides and shoves a piece of pie in her open mouth before she can reply. She glares at him as she swallows the piece of delectable peach pie.

"You're so eloquent."

"I try, my lady," he replies before capture her lips with his.

---

The fallout of their relationship, if you could call it that, comes exactly fourteen days after the "incident." He refuses to dwell on it as he now knows it was the straw that broke the camel's back, the climax of a series of stupid decisions and taking her for granted. He can't blame the "incident" as the exact moment their relationship ended.

The only one he can blame is himself.

But, let's just say, there was an insane amount of alcohol in his system when he showed up to escort her to the Back to School Bash almost an hour later, which was at least better than the All Greek Ball. An insane amount of alcohol he quickly tossed onto her shoes and the shoes of the new Zeta Beta Zeta president, Mallory McCrae.

The mangled pie – thanks to Beaver who sat on it – he brought was shoved back into his hands right before the door slammed in his face. And, through his waning alcohol daze and the tiny windows by the front door, he watched as Mallory berated Casey for her choice in boyfriends as Ashleigh and Frannie led her up the stairs, her tears running her perfectly applied mascara.

---

It's a week before she even takes his calls or doesn't turn and walk the other way when she spots him. A long, miserable week of trying to apologize, trying to make things right, trying to ignore that feeling in the pit of his stomach. And then, one afternoon, she asks him to met her at the coffee cart because she needs to talk to him.

_Not good_.

He brings "surprise pie" in a pink box as an unspoken apology, buys her a latte, and tries to give her a kiss when she arrives, but she turns her head and his lips brush her cheek. Her salty cheek.

"Cap, we…we need to talk," she whispers, her voice trembling.

_Not good._

"Uh," he stutters, struggle to put a stop to this conversation before it begins. "Should we, uh, sit? Or…"

"Let's take a walk," she mumbles, and her follows her away from the coffee cart towards the middle of the quad.

"Cap," she begins, but stops and traces her finger around the rim of the white coffee cup lid.

"Case," he retorts, anticipation leaking into his voice. He jams a hand into the front pocket of his jeans, and takes a swig of his cappuccino as they stop walking. She turns to face him, but her eyes refuse to meet his and he takes this as a good sign.

"We have to…" she mumbles so softly he can barely hear her. "I think we should, um, see other people."

"What?" He asks, his voice dripping with disbelief.

"We're, um, I'm breaking up…with…you," she says a little louder, a little more confidently.

"Like a break?" He asks as he grasps for straws – grasps for a lifeline – to keep them together. He has to hold onto hope or else this really is _over_. "Like last time?"

She doesn't reply verbally; just shakes her head 'no' and leaves him to take her gesture for what it is. His voice disappears, and his mouth gapes like a fish as he struggles to find something to say. Hope is quickly dissipating; his chest contracting as it disappears from his body.

"Why?" He manages to whimper out his question, sounding more pitiful than he would like.

"It's just not working, Cappie," she replies, but continues to refuse to look him in the eye.

"But we're…we're Cappie and Casey. Casey and Cappie."

"No," she replies softly, shaking her head in disagreement. "I'm Casey. You're Cappie. We…we haven't been Casey and Cappie in a long, long, _long_ time."

"That's not true," he retorts.

"Yes, it is!" She cries out, garnishing stares from those walking past them. "You're a Kappa Tau. You're always at the KT house, and you're just not…"

"Zeta Beta material?" He snaps back, anger surging through him. He's angry at her for listening to Mallory and Frannie and the rest of the Zeta Betas, angry that she doesn't want to be with him any more.

"Treating me the way I deserve," she corrects, and her chest heaves with a silent sob. His gaze softens as the truth settles over him, and he gingerly reaches out to cup her cheek. However, she turns away from him, and he's left standing here like an idiot.

"But…but I love you," he counters, pointing to his chest. "I love you, Case."

She gasps, a reaction she just can't help, and she turns to him with indignation in her eyes.

"You love me?" She snaps back. "Do you realize you've never told me that?"

"Yes, I have."

"Once, Cappie. After we had sex."

"You're breaking up with me because I don't spend every moment groveling at your feet telling you how you _know_ I feel?"

"Yes," she snaps before her voice cracks. "No. I'm breaking up with you because you spend more time at KT getting drunk and stoned than you do with me. I'm breaking up with you because you're a directionless, borderline alcoholic. I'm breaking up with you because I deserve better."

He doesn't know what to say, and it appears she doesn't either as the two stand facing one another, chest heaving in anger and fear.

_I'll change_, he wants to say, but he knows he can't be anyone other than Cappie.

_I love you_, he wants to say again, but he knows it isn't enough.

And suddenly, with a mumbled apology, she's walking away, and he's standing there at the end of the world.

---

After three days of wallowing in self-pity, of writing in his journal, of watching romance movies from the 1990s, he steals Wade and Beaver's toothbrushes and begins to scrub down the Kappa Tau house. Cleaning is a skill he learned after his parents started working at camp, and he was spent the three weeks before camp began with a broom and a dustpan in his hands. The KT house has never, ever been this clean, Egyptian Joe informs him.

And, in fact, he's right. Gone are the stains on the hardwood floors from vomit and alcohol; gone are the cobwebs, dust bunnies, and squirrel nests in the attic. Every light has a working light bulb; every remote has fresh batteries.

He cleans because he's heartbroken. He cleans because it's the only way he can get his life in order.

---

He doesn't see her until six days later on his way to Gentlemen's Choice to flush away dollar bills and gain a bad case of indigestion. She's sitting inside an Italian restaurant; her hair is all dolled-up, her make-up perfect, but her eyes convey a different emotion. So even though she's sitting at the table with a Lambda Sig – Jeffery? Adam? Mike? Cappie's not sure – he takes comfort in the fact that she's just as heartbroken, just as emotionally spent as him.

But less than a week later he spies her enjoying a Cappie-chino at the coffee cart on campus and laughing. _Laughing_. And suddenly he's not quite as comforted, not quite as sure that maybe there's hope for them yet.

---

Thanksgiving break is coming up on their heels, and Cappie can't wait, not because he's going home, but because _she_ won't be on campus. She won't be here to haunt his dreams, and maybe, just maybe, he can close his eyes and not think of her. Beaver is the one that spots them first, but he and Wade suck at subtlety, and Cappie is immediately confronted with the sight of _them_. They're happy, laughing loudly, and holding hands.

Casey and Evan. Evan and Casey.

The thought makes his stomach roll, and suddenly he's hunched over unable to stop vomiting on Gamma Psi Alpha's front lawn.

This is worse than any hangover.

---

Soon after that he installs a revolving door for his bedroom door. Short or tall, brunette, blonde, or redhead, he doesn't care.

He finds pieces of her in each of them – a freckle on their left inner thigh, an old chicken pox scare on their right shoulder, use of the same conditioner that gives off that wonderful smell – but nobody is wholly her.

Yet, for these girls, he doesn't have to be the perfect date, the perfect boyfriend. He just has to be good in bed, good at sex, and he's perfect.

They, however, are not. But while they may not take the pain away, they certainly mask it and he wants _her_ to know that he's moving on too.

---

It's after winter break that they start talking again – a hello in the hallway, a "how are you?" and forced smile at Doblers – but Cappie'll take it because it's all he's got.

That is, until she tells him that she and Evan are dating, and suddenly Cappie doesn't want to talk any more.

---

Wade, Beaver, Keith, and the rest of the KTs want to get revenge against Omega Chi for stealing one of their brother's girlfriend out from under him. He only half-heartedly participates in helping Beaver fart in their air vents and turning all their polo shirts tie-dye until Evan opens his month.

"_You couldn't keep her satisfied."_

Red. All he sees in red, and his fists begin flying. Again. By the time University Police arrive to break it up, Evan's nose is bleeding and the rest of the Omega Chis and KTs are battling it out. He gets six weeks of community service from the college and slapped with an assault charge by the police. Evan gets off scot-free, if you don't count the broken nose.

Eventually, though, he's let out of the slammer and told not only has his bail been posed, but all charges have been dropped. He tries to ask who paid, but Officer Abell won't tell him.

It isn't until he walks out of the parking lot and sees a blonde sliding into a red Beatle that he knows. And suddenly that hope he kept sequestered in the back of his mind surges to the forefront of his thoughts.

Because, honestly, who says it's over?


End file.
